HIT 1: Limit Students from Study Hall?

[Gabe Gancarz <gancarz@ENTERACT.COM>]

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Absolutely. In fact, the only way a student comes to our library from
Study Hall is if the student has a note from a classroom teacher and an
assignment that needs to be done.

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What is the purpose of your school's study halls?  What is the purpose of
your library?  Why do the students leave study hall and go to the library?
If students are coming to the library to work, fine.  If they are coming
to meet friends, talk, hang out or just be with their "heart throb",
sorry, but they need to stay in study hall.  The library is an educational
facility, not a community rec center.

We DO limit the number of students coming from study hall and if a class
is scheduled in, we restrict the number further.  We do accept "research
passes"  from the teacher that assigned the student the work.  Some of the
students and teachers complain, but I have the backing of the
administration on this policy.

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Good insights reflected in your PR concerns.  You are correct that without
others' buy-in, understanding and good will, you will be (inappropriately)
seen as the bully and the tyrant.  (Been there!)

The question I would ask in response is, what is the purpose or mission of
the library?  When this question is answered, accepted and understood by
all, it will be clear which activities and access should be sensibly
encouraged, and which ought naturally to be curtailed, and/or encouraged
to occur elsewhere.

Finitude, goals and limits are essential to acknowledge, to recognize, and
to respect, else the seemingly infrequently used airport runway will be
overrun with bicyclists, parked cars, or even restaurants built thereon!
(And it only "takes off" from there... .)

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We limit our study hall student number to whatever the class size is.
Assuming you are a teacher - and teachers have no more than 27 students -
then I would assume you would have no more than 27 students in your study
hall. YOu are on the same contract as the teacher so you should not have
more than any teacher.

We also expect our students to come with something to do - that is THEIR
responsibility. It doesn't have to be school work - they can read a
newspaper, magazine, book, write letters, whatever - but our media center
is considered an academic area so I expect the students to be involved in
a worthwhile activity. If they have nothing to do, I tell them they are in
the wrong place - and if they can't find something to do , they return to
study hall.

There does not seem to be any negative impact at all because of this
policy. Students understand that the media center is not recess and I hope
they view it as an area in which they can get work done. I like it to be
pretty quiet (not necessarily silent) because students do come to the
media center to read.

I spell out this policy on Day 1 and for the most part, it works pretty
well.

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We allow only six study hall students per period.

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You bet I do or they would all be there. Teachers like nice quiet study
halls so they can correct papers.  Better yet send them to the library.
Not mine.  I hav e students coming in the last 20 minutes from other
classes, usually 8-10 or so plus the 5 I let come from study hall. so
teachers won't abuse this, they let 5 come the first 20 minutes of class
and another 5 the last twenty minutes.  The on ly exception is if a
student is doing honest research.  If they want to study th ey can stay in
study hall. In my library I see 120-150 students per day, the sam e as
teachers. And this is only a 9-12 school of 320. Usually during the day
any where from 2-4 teachers are doing research in the library. Then I must
assist.

The kids from study hall are very quiet. They know the rules.  They
usually are on the internet reading their mail (yes it is allowed),
reading the newspaper or m agazines or just reading. I've had great
success with the library and I want to keep it that way. Also I do not
allow gum, food, or any beverages. Some schools actually do let their
students drag pop thru the halls. I like what I do very much, the kids
like me and that's a good feeling. They also know that if they abus e the
library prpivilege they are history.  Hope this helps.

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We suggest that Study Halls send no more than 3 students at a time.  We
have several study halls each period.  If more need to use the resources,
a study hall teacher may inquire as to whether or not we can accommodate
more students.  We do this is there are not too many classes in the LMC at
the time.  This seems to work.

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I'm in a small, private school now, so I don't have that problem, but in
my last position in a public school that situation was the bane of my
existence.  I limited it to so many (let's say 7) per study hall that the
teacher could send, and believe me, some teachers would get rid of as many
kids as they could on a daily basis.

What upset me to no end was one day when we had to shut down the library
for testing and a teacher caught me in the hall and said, "Oh, I'm so
upset the library is closed to study hall students today!  That's how I
get rid of my trouble makers each day so I can have a pleasant study
hall." I wanted to hit her, but I had to keep telling myself that they can
be so insensitive to what we do and why we're there.  I kept doing the
limiting though, and people complied, but they didn't always like it.

I think it depends on how supportive your administration is. Mine often
didn't let me make rules like that. Here they do. I'm in complete control
of the library and who may stay and who must leave, etc.  Mostly teachers
will be upset if they can't send as many students as want to go, and there
could be flak from the students for the same reason. If they have legit
reasons for needing the library and are closed out by a quota system
they'll rebel. I used to tell the study hall teachers to rotate them in
that case. No student coming on two consecutive days if others needed to
be there.

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END HIT PART 1

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